CHICAGO – Clint Dempsey was voted the U.S. Soccer Federation’s top male athlete for the second consecutive year.

The Tottenham midfielder also won this honor in 2007.

He joined midfielder Landon Donovan (2003, 2004, 2009, 2010) and goalkeeper Kasey Keller (1997, 1999, 2005) as the only players to win three times or more.

Dempsey had a team-high six goals for the United States this year, including five in World Cup qualifying.

Rubio Rubin was voted young male athlete of the year after scoring eight goals for the under-17 team.

Gruesome murder trial opens against Brazilian goalkeeper

RIO DE JANEIRO – The trial of a former star goalkeeper charged with orchestrating the kidnapping and gruesome murder of an ex-girlfriend started Monday, with two lawyers abandoning the case and the victim’s mother making a tearful plea for justice.

The case of Bruno Fernandes, known in Brazil as Bruno, has riveted the country and shocked the soccer world.

Fernandes’ accomplices allegedly captured his former girlfriend, model Eliza Samudio, before killing her, quartering her and feeding her remains to dogs.

Bruno was captain of the Flamengo team that won the Brazilian championship in 2009.

That same year, Samudio made the first allegations to police that she was pregnant with Fernandes’ child, and that the players and others kidnapped her and tried to force her to terminate the pregnancy.

She refused.

The child was born healthy and named Bruno as well. The model disappeared soon afterward in June 2010.

In December of that year, Fernandes was found guilty of Samudio’s initial accusations and is serving a prison sentence of 4 1-2 years and six months in that case.

After a court dispute, Samudio’s mother was named the child’s guardian.

Bruno now faces a second trial on charges he ordered his ex-girlfriend’s grisly death.